How To Turn Off Spell Check In iOS 10, In Case You Like To Live Dangerously

Personally, I am of the mind that spell check can be a useful tool if you make sure not to rely too heavily on it; I like that it can help you catch typos, as well as prevent you from continually having to Google that one word you can never remember how to spell. But if you’ve been wondering how to turn off spell check in iOS 10, well, I can understand that, too; not everyone likes be corrected all the time. Besides, there’s perhaps something to be said for those folk who are willing to venture into the world without the support of their trusty spell check. It speaks of a certain kind of bravery. Or maybe recklessness. Heck, maybe it’s both. Whatever it is, non-spell checkers of the world, I salute you.

Spell check isn’t a new feature for iOS 10, which was released a week ago on Sept. 13; this tutorial on how to turn it on and off on the iPad and iPhone dates back to April of 2011, which means that spell check has been part of iOS since at least iOS 4.2.1. (The original release date of iOS 4 was June 21, 2010; iOS 4.2.1 came along on Nov. 22, 2010, while iOS 5 wasn’t previewed to the public until June 6, 2011.) Although The Verge’s history of iOS suggests that iOS 4 marked the first time spell check was included in the mobile operating, The Daily Beast also notes in an article about the iPhone’s spell check capabilities that the feature was first introduced in April of 2010. Do with that what you will.

In any event, we can be reasonably certain that spell check for iOS arrived somewhere in the 2010 to 2011 window — and it’s been a fixture of the operating system ever since. (Note, too, that autocorrect and spell check are two different things — autocorrect is the tool that's responsible for automatically switching out what you actually typed for a different word, like what happens when you type a certain four-letter word and end up telling someone to "duck off." Spell check just tells you whether or not you're spelling things correctly.) Exactly how you turn spell check on and off in iOS also hasn’t changed much during that time, but in case you need a refresher, here’s how to do it in iOS 10:

1. From Your Home Screen, Go To “Settings”

2. Then Go To “General”

3. Scroll Down And Go To “Keyboard”

4. Scroll Down And Find The “Check Spelling” Switch

5. Tap The “Check Spelling” Switch

If the switch is green, spell check is on; if it’s white, spell check is off. (You can also turn off autocorrect while you're at it, if you like — just toggle the "Auto-Correction" tab to white and you will never have to worry about "ducking" anything ever again.)

Choose wisely, my friends. And hey, at least if you choose poorly, reversing your decision is as easy as repeating the process all over again.

This post has been updated to clarify the difference between spell check and autocorrect.